New Travel Book: ‘Our Dumb World’
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 10.31.07 | 3:23 PM ET
Full title: “Our Dumb World: The Onion’s Atlas of the Planet Earth, 73rd Edition”
Author: Writers of The Onion
Released: Oct. 30, 2007
Travel genre: Parody, atlas
Territory covered: The world, from “Allah’s Cat Box” (Afghanistan) to “The Bridebasket of Europe” (Ukraine)
Promo copy: “Our Dumb World is an invaluable tool for any reader interested in overthrowing a weakened government in East Asia, exploiting a developing nation in Africa, or for directions to tonight’s party at Erica’s. It is a reference guide to 250,000 of the world’s most important places, such as North Korea’s Trench of Victory, the Great Human Pyramid of Egypt, and Saudi Arabia’s superhighway, the Mohammedobahn.”
Sample entry: Chile: Preventing Argentina from Enjoying the Pacific Ocean Since 1818.
Critical verdict: “[A] strikingly funny, detailed atlas that zings every country from Morocco to Congo; Ireland to Switzerland (Wisconsin State Journal) and an “especially clever lampoon of American ignorance in that it does not require any knowledge of the places covered” (New York magazine). “Each dig is more hilarious—and less politically correct—than the last” (Wired).
Excerpt: Here.